The team, which arrived in Uganda last weekend, comprised three individual volunteers with BMS World Mission and also a nine-member BMS Medical Team.
The health professionals will support the staff at the hospital, which is attached to the Kagando Rural Development Centre in the foothills of the Ruwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda, and will also be directly involved in the treatment of the patients at the hospital.
The Medical Team will stay at the 200-bed hospital for two weeks under the leadership of David and Jane Thompson who already have experience as BMS volunteers in Uganda.
The rest of the team includes a specialist registrar in general medicine, as well as two nurses and a midwife who will work alongside hospital staff and also participate in local community work.The three volunteers, also health professionals, will remain at the hospital for at least a few months.
Palliative care nurse, Christine Payne from Essex, is one of the three volunteers who will stay in Uganda until October.
Prior to her departure, she said: “I'm keen to get involved with palliative care but will do whatever I can to help in any area where there is a need.
“Please pray that all the team will get on well together and that we will be a blessing and an encouragement to those we've gone to help - both patients and staff.”
The UK group will be a welcome support to the small staff team at the hospital which consists of just two surgeons, two regular physicians, an anaesthetist and a physiotherapist to cover the entire range of services and treat all the patients.
The Medical Team is the second of three that are to be sent out by BMS throughout 2006. The first Medical Team arrived in Bangladesh in February.
BMS is currently recruiting for the third team to go out to Bangladesh in November and December 2006. For more information click HERE
Prayer requests from BMS:
• For good health and energy for all of the BMS short-term workers in Kagando.
• That they will make a tangible difference to the lives of people in this part of Uganda.
• That this taste of overseas mission will inspire the team members and volunteers, and further their relationship with God and others.
